


There’s a Lot of Obscurity

by RogueMarieL



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Psych Fusion, Blind Go, Detective Akira, Gen, Hikaru is not psychic, Wistful Ending, preslash at the end if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 04:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14762294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueMarieL/pseuds/RogueMarieL
Summary: Hikaru isn't psychic or a detective, but there's a ghost who disagrees.A very loose Psych!au that no one asked for.





	There’s a Lot of Obscurity

**Author's Note:**

> This was my submission for tuuli's second unofficial round of Blind Go under the pen name pineapple no go.
> 
> Title from the Psych theme song.

“You… you can see me?”

Hikaru stared at the man in the very awkward purple hat. In part, he stared because the man was wearing an awkward purple hat, but he also stared because he could see through the man. 

“I think I’ve lost my mind.”

* * *

It had started as a joke. A friend from college had gotten a job in enforcement, and eventually made detective. One night, he had invited Hikaru to a happy hour, and that’s where the trouble started.

“I’m definitely psychic!” Hikaru claimed. He hadn’t had a lot to drink, but he didn’t need to, as he didn’t really drink that often. 

Everyone else had had enough to drink that they believed him. He said a few vague, general statements, and (much like when a person reads a horoscope), they fit the person he was talking to just enough that they could fill in all of the blanks left behind.

Well. Everyone except one. Another detective in the department, Det. Akira Touya, was definitely unconvinced.

Several days later, one of the more… excitable detectives called on Hikaru for his psychic expertise. 

Hikaru was, at the time, stuck in the middle of a very unfortunate conversation and was looking for any way out. 

Deciding to go be a police psychic to escape an ex girlfriend was not the most reasonable decision he had ever made, but somehow, he made it work. He was never explicit, never said anything that wasn’t already known to whomever he was talking to, but somehow he managed to word it in a way that led the officer or detective to think about it in a new or slightly different way.

And only Akira really noticed, which (both Hikaru and Akira thought), was maybe not a great thing for the general state of the Santa Barbara police department, but somehow it worked for them anyway.

* * *

Hikaru, having eaten several slices of pineapple and been stalked all the way home by the definitely-not-a-ghost, had begun to accept that the man was, maybe, possibly, it was at the very least not necessarily not true, a ghost.

A ghost who was, by all appearances, having a conversation with another ghost that Hikaru could not see.

“I see. And you were killed by… oh, of course, yes, I understand.” he nodded at… well, probably not the cabinet with the cereal, although that’s what it looked like to Hikaru. “That’s very unfortunate. And you can’t move on until your killer has been brought to justice? That’s terrible.”

The oh-god-maybe-actually-a-ghost turned to Hikaru. “Is there anything you can do about this?”

Hikaru, who was not at all panicked about the ghost -- Sai, he had said his name was Sai -- acknowledging him, let out a startled, “Ack!”

Sai stared at him. “You see, I can’t do anything about this, but perhaps you could go to the police and let them know!”

Hikaru was, while not psychic, suddenly very aware of what was about to happen. He couldn’t say no -- whatever Sai had been talking to was murdered, and finding justice for was important -- but it was never going to stop at one. 

At least he already had a plan in place?

* * *

“You aren’t psychic!” Akira continued to type on his computer. “And I’m not sure who, exactly, told you about that, but it was definitely not a ghost.”

“I know I’ve never mentioned ghosts before, but it’s because it’s a new development!”

“Are you sure you aren’t just hallucinating? Taken something? Gotten hit in the head?” Akira stood and walked to the printer to collect his report. Gathering it together, he placed it into the file folder. “We both know you can’t actually talk to the dead, Shindou.”

“Look,” Hikaru said. “All I know is that a man named Michio Shirakawa is dead, and he was killed by his older brother because his brother was jealous about something that their parents left to him. That’s all I’ve got. Look into it or don’t, because it looks like I’m going to be stalked by a ghost named Sai for possibly the rest of my life and honestly I just want to go to bed.”

And for the first time since they’d met, Akira watched Hikaru walk away first.

* * *

Three days later, Hikaru walked back into the station carrying a notebook and a tupperware container.

“Shindou!” Akira called.

Hikaru sighed, and, accepting the unavoidable, walked toward him. Before Akira could begin, Hikaru shoved the notebook at him and opened up the tupperware. He pulled out a fork. “In the mood for delicious flavor?” he asked, offering Akira a pineapple cube.

Akira didn’t answer. “Shindou. I looked into the Shirakawa death. You were right. I don’t know how you knew, because you definitely aren’t psychic, but we have the man in custody. He’s confessed.”

Hikaru stared at him. “You actually looked into it?” he asked as he chewed.

Akira sighed. “It was my case anyway,” he muttered. He looked at the notebook he held. “What’s this?”

“Ugh,” Hikaru sighed forcefully. “All the time, this ghost is talking to me. And you’re great!” he said, suddenly turned to the left. “I love having you around and everything, and learning to play Go has been interesting, it’s just that the other ghosts, they won’t stop. Which,” and here he turned back to Akira, “it’s understandable, really, since they can just tell Sai to tell me to tell you who killed them, but also I would like to be able to sleep more. I haven’t gotten more than nine hours a night since I met Sai.”

Akira didn’t really know how to respond to this.

“Anyway, there’s a few more people, with, you know, names, dates, whatever. I figured, maybe, you could do something about it?”

Akira sighed. Hikaru was most likely delusional, but even if the only thing that looking into the deaths would do is convince Hikaru he should maybe consider getting help, it would be worth it.

Besides, they were already someone’s case file anyway.

* * *

Everyone confessed.

* * *

Much, much later, after many notebooks, Go games, and pineapple cubes, Hikaru showed up to Akira’s house looking worse than usual.

“He’s gone.”

* * *

It had started as a joke. It ended with the Santa Barbara Police Department closing more murder cases in two months than they usually did in a year, many of them cold cases that had gone unsolved for years.

It ended with Hikaru walking away from the Santa Barbara Police Department in a professional capacity, saying that he’d lost his gift.

It ended with Hikaru walking away from the department, but not away from Akira. They got together regularly to play Go, and Hikaru occasionally talked about the man he’d known, the ghost that was the middleman to so many conversations about murder, the man who taught him how to play.

And if Hikaru occasionally thought he heard a whisper in the wind, well. He was sure he’d see Sai again someday.

**Author's Note:**

> Sai watched Hikaru look for him. The first time he heard Hikaru yell for him, he'd responded.
> 
> When he realized that Hikaru couldn't hear him, his heart broke a little. While they had helped a lot of ghosts find peace, they had become friends.
> 
> They had been in the middle of a game of Go.
> 
> Sai stayed around for a time, but it was too hard watching Hikaru disengage from everyone. On the plus side, Hikaru and Akira were still friends (and Sai was not at all jealous that they could play Go when he could not), but Hikaru had distanced himself from nearly everyone else he knew.
> 
> Many years later, long after Sai had crossed over, he heard two people talking nearby. The voices were familiar, in a half-forgotten way. He looked towards them, and found them looking at him.
> 
> "Sai!"


End file.
